July 21, 2009

Three Women Physicists Win Blewett Scholarships for 2009

Klejda Bega, a Post-Doctoral Associate at Columbia University, will work to develop a novel approach to creating ultracold diatomic molecules in optical lattices at microKelvin temperatures, and to conduct precise measurements with these molecules. Bega, a native of Albania, earned both her PhD (2004) and BS (1999) at California Institute of Technology. “Ever since I read a biography of Marie Curie when I was nine years old,” she says, “I dreamed of becoming a physicist.”

Marija Nikolic-Jaric, a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, works in the field of biomicrofluidics. The award will enable her to build on her work on improving the detection and classification of biological cells by investigating fundamental aspects of the effects of shear-induced rotation of aspherical particles in the non-uniform electric field. Nikolic-Jaric received her BSc from the University of Belgrade in 1990 and her PhD from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver in 2008.

Janice Wynn Guikema, an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and a previous winner of a Blewett Scholarship in 2008, will expand her research on graphene for use as a magnetic field sensor and use scanning probe microscopy to better understand graphene. Guikema received her BS from Cornell University in 1998 and her PhD from Stanford University in 2004.

The Blewett Scholarship award was established by a generous bequest from M. Hildred Blewett, a particle accelerator physicist who died in 2004. Hildred Blewett was passionate about physics and recognized that women who have interrupted their research careers for family reasons can face many obstacles when they try to resume that research. The scholarship consists of a one-year award of up to $45,000 which can be used toward dependent care, salary, travel, equipment, and tuition and fees. Applicants are selected by a sub-committee of the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics.

About APS

The American Physical Society is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents over 53,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, MD (Headquarters), Ridge, NY, and Washington, D.C.